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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [First Page] [124], (1) Lines: 0 t ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal P PgEnds: T [124], (1) 7. keeping culture in mind Transforming Academic Training in Professional Psychology for Indian Country Joseph P. Gone Some years ago during a visit home to the Fort Belknap Indian reservation in Montana, I was approached in an uncharacteristically serious manner by a close family member who confided with evident desperation that he needed to talk with me at once. We found a quiet space near the woodstove and settled into stuffed chairs across from one another . I sat silently and waited for my relative to speak. After mustering his courage, he whispered determinedly, “I’m going through a really tough time and I need your help. Will you do therapy with me?” I was stunned into silence, quickly reviewing my years of doctoral training in clinical psychology in search of an adequate response. After several seconds passed, I mumbled something about the impropriety of conducting psychotherapy with a close relative and haltingly suggested that he could pursue therapy with an Indian Health Service clinician or substance abuse counselor. He winced almost imperceptibly, and then his voice hardened: “What makes you think I would trust anyone outside of this family with my problems?”A moment later, he was gone. And he has not entrusted me with his problems since. Such encounters are not unfamiliar to most American Indian or Alaska Native psychologists who live or work in Indian country, where the tools of our trade often seem woefully inadequate. Not surprisingly, Native American people are relative newcomers to the ranks of academic and professional psychology.1 Although precise numbers are difficult to obtain,there can be no more than 150 Native persons to have earned doctorates in psychology during the past half-century in the United States.2 Furthermore, if the participants at the annual convention of American Indian Psychologists are at all representative of our professional population , the vast majority—particularly among the more senior cohorts— found their graduate training in psychology perplexing, alienating, and keeping culture in mind 125 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [125], (2) Lines: 41 to 43 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [125], (2) even infuriating.3 As a result, the majority of Native psychologists have steered clear of the academy—indeed, the number of Indian psychologists actively employed as full-time faculty in academic institutions must surely number less than one-sixth of the trained population. If one further reduces this academic population to those Native psychologists who serve on faculties in professional psychology training programs,while actively publishing scholarly research in peer-reviewed journals and books about topics and issues directly related to the well-being of American Indian or Alaska Native communities, the persons so designated can be counted on one’s fingers. Those of us who remain in the Western academy as faculty in professional psychology training programs (especially the clinical and counseling psychology subfields) seek to render our research, teaching, and service relevant to Indian country. In my mind, such dedication entails two distinct (but related) goals, including transforming the conventions of mental health service delivery in Native communities on the one hand,and transforming the conventions of academic training in psychology on the other hand. The first goal is designed to ensure that mental health services within Native communities are fundamentally responsive to the local cultural constituents of “mental” health and well-being, while the second goal is designed to ensure that cross-cultural proficiency and sophistication characterize the preparation of all psychologists in the multicultural twenty-first century. Since the doctorate is required for licensure to practice psychology in the United States and Canada, both goals converge in the training of graduate students in professional psychology—especially American Indian and Alaska Native students— who must profit from the latter if they are to accomplish the former. Indeed, it would seem that similar commitments must characterize any professional psychology training program dedicated to facilitating competency in research, teaching, and professional service with the “culturally...

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